Panera Bread Reunites With Au Bon Pain As Shaich Retires As CEO

Au Bon Pain, which was sold by founders Ron Shaich and Louis Kane in 1999 so that they could better focus on building Panera Bread, was reacquired by the company yesterday. Panera also announced that
Blaine Hurst, who joined St. Louis-based Panera in 2011 as SVP of technology and transformation and was named president last December, will replace Shaich as CEO on Jan. 1.